I'm a Garage Sale Freak

Now that I have decided on a title for this blog (actually – it went through a few “changes of clothes” during my brainstorming process – which has lasted several weeks), I can actually write a second post and PUBLISH it!  I am such a social butterfly, that I have been semi-dying to publish this (and write several more entries), but I just didn’t feel right in doing so without a clear direction. 

Finally…here it is.  The title to my blog (as if you didn’t see it blaring at the top) is The Upcycle Queen.  As I stated in my earlier post, I am many things, but there is one idea that really is at my core…I am Dutch.  If you aren’t Dutch, well, as my great grandma would say, you aren’t much.  No for real, if you aren’t Dutch, then you are not privy to the intense desire to scrimp, save, and squeeze as much out of every penny as possible.  I grew up thriving on hand-me-downs, shopping at consignment shops, garage sales, and thrift stores, and in general, finding ways to repurpose nearly everything.  We do not throw things out – we may find an alternative use for them, give them away to someone else that can find benefit from it, or sell it, but you NEVER throw things out.  Literally…in our minds…is is the same as taking a dollar bill and throwing it away in the trash – which is BEYOND my imagination.

Some people call this being cheap – but I choose to call it being thrifty.  My rush of excitement comes when I find a brand new same-season satin dress with a coordinating suite jacket for $4 in someone’s garage.  SCORE!  Likewise, finding my husband a tailored pin stripe suite at our local thrift shop for $4 (I must find good deals in that range) was a slam dunk.  My endorphins shoot out of the roof, and it gives me a high, and in our family, if momma is happy, well, everyone is happy. 

Still, I need to budget.  My detested word – which is almost an oxymoron since the nature of being savvy with your finances starts with a well planned budget.  That doesn’t mean I have to like that part. 

So, I think it is safe to say that I am a garage sale freak!  No, really.  I am literally counting down the days till that first Saturday sale when I can find deals for a quarter that I can repurpose for my family.  Some people swear by thrift shopping, others swear by mom2mom sales (for their kids).  Not me (although I have been known to take advantage of both).  I am a die-hard garage sale girl.  The months of May-August are filled with Saturday morning trips to various yards littered with another family’s trash – which will later be turned into my treasure.  I am a little obsessed.  It is probably a good thing I live in a state where there is a “season” for garage salers, or I may literally never see my family on the weekends.

All this to say that I thought “The Upcyle Queen” was an appropriate title for my little blog.  I know I will post many things on here about motherhood, marriage, my Christian faith, friends, etc., but at least I have a title…and a (semi) direction.  Garage sale season is upon us…only a few more weeks till I can start my yearly upcycle adventures…and I.Can’t.Wait!

Speaking of the season, the Smith family (along with our neighbors) are holding a sale of our own on April 20^th.  There is a lot of good stuff!  Brand name clothes (you know I am a brand snob), household goods, a few baby items,  tools, and some furniture.  We may not throw things out, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like to purge.  Spring cleaning has hit our house, and we have a lot to sell – for cheep! Hope to see you on the 20^th! 

I am a writer by trade. I get paid to write.  Ok, let me be specific.  I am a technical writer. I get paid to write manuals – user manuals.  Yes…boring, not-at-all creative user manuals.  This was not at all what I had in mind while sitting in Mrs. Bouma’s 7^th grade Language and Literature class and announcing (in my mind) that I was born to write.  The poems, short stories, essays, and memoirs that so many kids in my class languished over were, to me, quite thrilling and, frankly, I lived for every assignment.  I knew that year that I was destined to write forever.  Destiny, however, has a funny way of plopping you smack-dab in the middle of a life you never thought you would have. If you would have asked when I was 13 if I would consider a career writing assembly directions and user guides, I may have laughed in your face.  No, really…I was actually not a very “nice” girl in my formative years, but that is another story for another time. So, how did I end up here…with this life? Well…that is a story…a story I, myself am not exactly sure how to answer…at least not in this little intro.

I have thought about writing a blog for, well, a long time.  At times my Facebook posts are a blog in and of themselves.  This, of course, annoys me, because it is actually a pet-peeve of mine – but of course I have continued to fulfill my own pet-peeve – until now.  “The buck stops here.” I have no more excuses for run-on sentences and paragraph style posts on Facebook.  I’ll move my run-on sentences to this blog instead. J

My real hope is that through this blog, I will somehow remember where my roots were grounded.  I miss writing.  I knew a whole lot more about myself when I wrote it down on paper.  In some essence, I think I lost perspective of who I am as a person. What do I identify myself as?  I am a wife, but I don’t think that is what I would “say” I am.  I am a mom, but again, that is not my identifier.  I am a Christian.  Ok, so that is a HUGE aspect of who I am in a spiritual sense, but what about physically and emotionally? As previously stated, I am a technical writer, but that does not accurately describe “me.” I am a cook, a baker, and I have spent time as a homemaker (ooh…a rhyme), but…does that depict Kathleen J. Smith? Hmm…

So, to make an already long story short, this blog is so I can write…so I can creatively write. Actually, so I can just get beyond technical writing.  Ok, if I am really being honest it is so I can just chew on the flab in a more relaxed setting…but who really needed to know that.  If you know me, you know I like to talk.  Some talkers can’t write to save their lives, but me, on the other hand, give me a pen and I will tell you the whole story.  Probably tell you more than you want to know.  Maybe this will help give me the push to publish something (a dream of mine since that Language and Literature class), or maybe this will end up as just another foodie or mom-blog…which, by the way, I would be ok with.  For once, I don’t really have a plan.  This is unusual for me. So, bear with me, and let’s just see where it goes.